


A Valentine's Day Plan Massacred

by DoomBeThyName



Category: DCAMU - Fandom, DCU, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020), Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016), Teen Titans (Comics), Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29448375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomBeThyName/pseuds/DoomBeThyName
Summary: This was meant to be out hours ago as a 3-4k word short story. Unfortunately, I have the tendency to extend these things, which is what happened here. It could have gone on to the 8-9k mark, but for the sake of getting a Valentine's Day one-shot out ON Valentine's Day, I rushed the second half a bit as I didn't start on this until this morning. I hope you all still enjoy.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Talia al Ghul (mentioned), Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, John Constantine/Zatanna (mentioned), Kon-El/Cassandra Cain (mentioned), Raven/Damian Wayne
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47





	A Valentine's Day Plan Massacred

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be out hours ago as a 3-4k word short story. Unfortunately, I have the tendency to extend these things, which is what happened here. It could have gone on to the 8-9k mark, but for the sake of getting a Valentine's Day one-shot out ON Valentine's Day, I rushed the second half a bit as I didn't start on this until this morning. I hope you all still enjoy.

It was supposed to have been a wonderful weekend.

‘Magical’ was the term Donna had used when she and Raven had spoken at length the other night. It hadn’t taken much past Raven confiding how she felt in a moment of confidence for the chain reaction to begin, emerging from Donna’s own bold confidence and excitement. And so, Raven awoke Saturday morning, the day before the annual sweetheart holiday affair that originated from a bloody pagan festival, with little to nothing else on her mind.

“Don’t be a bust,” she muttered to her reflection in the mirror. For a moment, she regretted having confessed to Donna.

She sighed as she twisted the handle for the hot water for her shower. The late-morning daylight was shining through the wide window and she gazed out to the clear sky, lost in thought.

If it had been up to her, Valentine’s Day wouldn’t have been her choice to do it. But, if Raven was honest with herself, she had never actually _thought_ about doing it. Putting herself out there, baring her heart with no idea what is in return, despite Donna’s _“inkling”_ … she was scared by the idea of it.

Thinking of all the ways it could go wrong, but still missing the one way it was destined to, she jumped in the hot water blasting down on her as the tower’s alarms rang with a force that made her ear drum’s throb.

Raven cursed, jetting out of the de-stressing hot water after only a few minutes and hurried to dry off. Now that there was more than a handful of them, Kori only ever pulled the alarm when it was absolutely imperative. Water droplets left her hair as she flew down the hallways after not getting the chance to properly dry off. With the alarm blaring so loudly still in her ears, it was beginning to distort Raven’s senses, so she could not very well gauge the feeling in the room as she appeared to be the last one to enter.

A majority of the current Titans were lined up in the conference area with Kori and Nightwing standing out front. As the alarm was at long last silenced, Donna turned her head back towards Raven from the far left of the line wearing an easy expression, though Raven didn’t let that affect her own demeanor; Donna was rarely ever not confident about anything.

Kori nodded Raven’s way before continuing what she was saying before. “Thank you for all responding swiftly again. Something has fallen in our lap that calls for swift action.”

“As opposed to all the other times,” whispered Beast Boy to Blue Beetle. The latter gave a scolding, “ _dude_ ,” and they reverted to quietly listening again.

“The sorceress Circe is in our area,” continued Starfire. Nightwing clicked a button on a handheld device he was holding and a hologram of an old museum Raven was fond of on the outskirts of Jump City came to life for them all to see. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his chin incline a fraction in interest- she’d taken him there once before when he wished to learn the roots of magic.

“Isn’t that the tourist trap for all the creep stuff?” asked Jaime in bewilderment.

“Some of it is very _real_ and very _valuable,”_ explained Starfire. “There’s powerful ancient magic held in some of these artifacts. In Circe’s hands, the limit is likely her imagination.”

“We need to disrupt her plans and be out expeditiously,” said Nightwing forcefully, “Circe gives the Justice League a migraine on their best day. We fly in, retrieve whatever it is she’s looking for, and get out.”

Starfire looked around at them all. “Raven, Donna, Beetle. You three and I will handle the main stage attack. Nightwing, Beast Boy, and Robin will attempt to grab whatever Circe is after while we four have her distracted. Jon… I’m sorry, but since this is powerful magic we’re dealing with, you’ll be hanging back out of the clear.”

Chuckling ensued as a loud groan at the opposite end of the line erupted. Donna particularly whipped her head around with a wide, white smile as Jonathon Kent, the team’s second Superboy, pleaded his case with a puppy dog expression.

“Come on coach,” he tried earnestly, “if it’s speed we need, I got this! Let me swoop in and out. She’ll never even know I was there,” but Starfire was already shaking her head at his vain attempt.

“I’m not risking her having a magical barrier already in place,” she said, “we can handle this just fine, Jonathon. Sit this one out.”

Jon looked to his friend Damian beside him, who didn’t budge from his stony expression either. Superboy let out a heavy sigh as if he’d had a long day and not just been told to take it easy instead.

“Prepare yourselves,” Kori said sternly, “We leave in five.”

The team nodded in unison, though most of them were ready to go. Donna put on an air of feigning indifference and distraction as Jon cast a glance her way down the line. Raven nearly caught Robin’s eye, wishing to engage in a quick conversation about the magical pieces in the museum, but Garfield and Jaime were suddenly in front of her.

“Did the alarm catch you in the shower, Rae?” snickered Beast Boy. “You’ve got that drowned cat look going on.”

“ _Garfield!”_ Donna halfway snarled. Raven threw her hood up as Beast Boy held his hands up in fearful surrender and Beetle dragged him away, rolling his eyes.

“Come on, hermano…”

Raven and Donna shared an unamused look. As they looked the _Super Sons_ way again, Raven found the duo occupied as Robin appeared to be explaining the layout of the museum’s area so that Jon could keep a better eye on things from up top. One look at Damian’s ruminative expression and Raven knew he wouldn’t be distracted until the job was done. Thinking of what would transpire between now and tomorrow, she sighed tiredly. Donna gave her friend a sad smile.

~

“Did you _try_ to make chocolates?”

Raven wasn’t sure how she could feel such an itch for a fight radiating from Donna while hearing those words. She looked at her Amazonian ally with a curious expression as they positioned themselves outside of the seemingly deserted ancient museum.

“No,” she said nervously, and then hesitated before asking, “did you?”

Donna looked shocked. “Are you kidding? This is the _big day!_ I made like eight different kinds.”

Raven blinked rapidly. Were there even that many kinds of chocolates?

“I don’t know if I want to give him the best one or just give him all of them,” Donna contemplated in a serious manner. “I’ve seen him eat so many sweets I think he’d appreciate the latter…”

Raven tried to get herself mentally on the same level Donna was on, ready for enemy engagement but also debating her romantic plan. “I shared my cotton candy with Damian at the fair once,” she whispered, keeping her eyes trained on the building, “but that’s the only time I’ve ever seen him consume anything sweet.”

“You got it lucky,” said Donna, “I think a serious talk is all Robin requires. Other than his _Cheese Viking_ obsession, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him be a kid.” She then glanced over at Raven with a playful smirk. “ _Besides,_ you already got him Titus for his thirteenth birthday a few years ago.”

“Hardly a romantic gift,” said Raven under her breath. Damian needed something to personally care for and nurture. Starfire walked up to the duo with a zoned-in expression and though Raven thought she and Donna were going to get a quick scolding line, the Titans leader said, “Aren’t you worried Jon can _hear_ what you girls are up to? Won’t that spoil the surprise?”

Donna squinted up at the sky. “I can’t even see him. He’s got to be six miles up at least. Can he hear that far?”

“He’s half Kryptonian…”

“Well shi-“

Donna never got to finish her curse. Just then a very bright purple flare came from inside the museum. Starfire looked from the girls to Blue Beetle, who’d been minding his own business, and yelled, “Titans, go!”

Donna was the first one bolting through the doors, predictably, with Raven and the other two right on her heels.

She was there in the middle of the grand floor, stirring a small cauldron lit by a blue fire underneath with pink steam rising from it. It was clear to Raven she was a very beautiful woman despite the ugly sneer she wore as she looked over her shoulder at them. Bangs of short orange fair fell to her eyes as her painted black lips curled.

“You will not stop this,” she cried, whirling her body around to face them all with a hand extended. Lightning erupted from her fingertips. Raven barely shielded her friends in time and staggered at the strength of the blow she felt.

“Take her out quick!” she yelled loudly, hoping to get Circe to focus on them alone. “She’s powerful.”

“Too powerful for the Justice League, little witch,” seethed Circe, stepping forward. The cauldron simmered behind her. “What hope do their halflings have?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to,” Blue Beetle shouted. His right arm formed into a wide canon and he and Starfire simultaneously sent blasts the sorceresses’ way, who deflected them with a casual shield.

Raven could feel her other teammates creeping up on Circe’s back slowly. As she sent a jet of dark magic towards the ancient and renowned sorceress, a small green mouse started racing its way across the floor on the backside of the cauldron. The slightest shadow appeared in the back window before disappearing, but Raven wasn’t sure how they were going to improvise. Whatever Circe was here for, she had surely already integrated it into whatever she was brewing. How could they stealthily make away with an entire bubbly cauldron?

Donna was frozen in her tracks by a simple wave of Circe’s hand an inch from landing a blow and was sent flying backward, crashing through a wall. Raven, knowing, other than being ticked off, that she was alright, hoped Jon wouldn’t come heroically flying in.

“You little children have no idea the power I hold!” said Circe darkly, zapping both Starfire and Beetle backward. Raven landed directly in front of her across the floor and summoned the demonic power of her blood. Her eyes glowed red and Circe’s narrowed, beginning to form complicated motions with her hands fluidly as Raven chanted, _“Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos!”_

Energy like red flames expelled from Circe’s hands as powerful dark magic emitted from Raven’s. They collided like a wall directly in the middle. Raven struggled to hold the powerful Circe to a stalemate. If she could do this, it wouldn’t matter the evil witch had already got what she came for. Sparks flew from their power crashing together and large cracks and tears formed in the building’s structure around them. But during their collision, Circe’s eyes widened and her head turned the other way. The entire cauldron was lit in a pale pink hue right as Nightwing and Robin were attempting to pour its contents into a different canister to make off with.

“It’s finished!” Circe said sharply. “Get away from it, you little boys!” She freed a hand from her duel with Raven and shot lethal green jets of light at the brothers, who both dove away, narrowly avoiding them. Her expression was fierce as Raven’s power began to overcome her own, but each of them became distracted when the wall Donna had been sent flying through burst open further and the Amazonian was bulleting towards the glowing cauldron in an attempt to snag the entire vessel.

“No!” Circe cried. The moment the barest touch of Donna’s fingertips laid against the black pot, a magenta pink tower erupted skywards through the roof and sent a shockwave through the entire building. Donna hit the floor hard enough to have cracked marble. Raven and Circe’s powers both dissipated, Raven now staring at her friend in concern as this time she was not okay. Donna Troy was out cold.

“ _Foolish imbeciles!”_ spat Circe. Somehow, amongst all the destroyed background and debris of their museum-turned-battlefield, she looked unscathed and untouched, utterly perfect as if she’d just gotten ready for the day and not battled the entirety of the Titans. “Have you any idea how long it took to track down a genuine arrowhead of Eros?! My plan foiled by angsty teenagers. I’ll never live down the shame…”

Starfire patted the dust off her shoulder as Damian quickly knelt by Donna’s side with a livid expression. “Don’t worry,” she growled, “where you’re going, they only know of the shame of defeat.”

“Your boldness is admirable, Tamaranian,” said Circe in a bored voice, “but I assure you I will not be sinking to the lowly ranks of _Deathstroke_ and _Killer Moth.”_ She glared from her now empty cauldron, left steaming, to Donna being lifted by Robin. Her black lips twisted in a cruel smile. “Enjoy the repercussions of messing with the mighty Circe.” With that, she lifted a hand high and snapped, immediately glowing blue and vanishing on the spot.

“Damn teleportation,” muttered Starfire. Beast Boy turned from a green mouse to his normal form.

“Do villains get off at referring to themselves in the third person?” he wondered.

“Guys!”

Raven rushed with them to where Damian had Donna supported with an arm around her shoulders. As the team huddled, a burst of sharp air came out of nowhere and Jon was there as fast as Circe had teleported away with a panicked expression.

“Can you hear her vitals?” Nightwing asked him seriously. Jon nodded weakly, not taking his eyes off her.

“She sounds fine…”

“But she _looks_ like she just got clobbered,” said Jaime. He put a comforting hand on Jon’s shoulder. “It happens sometimes, amigo. She’ll shake it off.”

“This is different,” said Starfire in a worried voice, “whatever that potion was, it had to have affected her to some degree.”

Damian looked up with a grimace and met Raven’s gaze. She knew he was as uneasy about this as she was. A comrade suffering to evil magic, as he learned through her, could go through any number of twisted fates.

At that moment, Donna groaned as she stirred. The entire team huddled around with bated breath as she peeped her eyes open and looked up at Damian for a moment who was still holding on to her. Her wonderful oceanic eyes flared pink for a moment before returning to normal and then closed again. The Titans all looked at each other curiously, wondering what had just happened to their friend…

~

“And _you’re sure_ the tests don’t say anything more?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” said Kori tiredly, refraining from rolling her eyes with great restraint as Jon asked for the umpteenth time that night. Raven, Damian, and the two of them were in the medical bay watching over an unconscious Donna. Damian and Raven shared another glance. Though he was still in his Robin attire, he’d taken his mask off so Raven caught the full emotion in his sharp emerald eyes.

“There likely won’t be anything more we can do tonight,” said Kori. “Likely, if the spell _did_ have any effect that doesn’t show until after she awakens, we’ll have to call in members of the Justice League Dark for assistance.”

“I’ve already called father to notify Zatanna,” Damian cleared up, “ _Constantine’s_ reliability is suspect, but she’ll at least be at the ready if we need her.”

Jon’s worried features didn’t seem appeased as he gazed down at the Amazonian beauty, but Kori nodded and stood. Her eyes flashed to Raven before clearing her throat and saying, “We can handle things here when she wakes up. You all should… try to relax some.”

Fat chance, Raven thought as she looked to Jon again. Damian was already shaking his head.

“From what I’ve been told, couples have something to celebrate tomorrow,” he said pointedly with a crooked grin, “you and Grayson earned a morning off to see to each other’s unutterable carnal desires.”

Raven groaned as Kori slapped her head in a hand. Jon’s expression didn’t change a fraction. As Kori muttered her goodbye (and gave Raven another quick, meaningful glance), Jon looked at Robin and Raven.

“I’ll be here if she changes, guys,” he said, “why don’t you two go get some sleep?”

“Only if you’re sure,” said Raven in concern. Jon nodded sadly so she turned to the doorway as Damian clapped a hand on his shoulder and joined her. Raven let her hood down as they began walking down the otherwise quiet hallway together. She thought she felt a slight curious flicker of shyness coming from Damian.

“She’s safe in his hands,” Raven said conversationally, watching him as they walked. Damian looked back at her with a small upwards twist in the corner of his mouth.

“It would be unachievable to wrest her from his grasp either way,” he said. Raven smiled.

“Is any of your family patrolling Gotham tomorrow?” Raven stopped a laugh short as Damian grimaced.

“Their urgencies will likely lay elsewhere,” he muttered. “Gothamites will only be able to hope villains never choose the fourteenth of February to beleaguer the city.”

“I’m sure Batman will keep a better eye out than that,” smiled Raven wryly.

“Not if my mother has anything to say about it,” said Damian. “Ever since he convinced her to go through the straight path, fighting is secondary. I’ve never seen her so… pessimistic.”

“I thought you were happy your parents got back together?” asked Raven.

Damian shrugged. “It doesn’t make me unhappy, I suppose.”

Raven scoffed. Then remembered that this was the person she was going to attempt to pull personal feelings from tomorrow if all went well and frowned in spite of herself. Damian suddenly had a much more serious gleam in his eye.

“Do you have any idea at all what Circe could have hit her with? Everything you showed me that was real in that museum…”

Raven shook her head. “An arrowhead of Eros could be used for a number of spells, but she used it as a mixture in a potion. I don’t brew those.”

Damian cursed under his breath. They’d come to a stop in the bedroom hallways. It could have been their own imagination, but it seemed that perhaps the other were reluctant to bid a goodnight just yet. Raven thought she felt Damian’s mind running through many things to say…

“Does your father know Conner has gone to Gotham to see Cass?” asked Raven while fishing for something to say. It worked. The uptick came back to Damian’s mouth.

“He possibly suspects,” he said as if the thought of something driving his father mad to no end enlightened him, “but if _Kon-El_ is wise, he’d do well to leave his romantic get together with Cassandra at the outskirts of the city. Father doesn’t carry kryptonite with him at all times for no reason.”

Raven chuckled. Another long moment passed where the heroes simply shifted from foot-to-foot, stalling the scene. For the first time since probably knowing each other, it seemed awkward to look the other in the eye.

“Well,” Damian said, clenching his teeth down along with everything he wanted to follow that word up with.

“I know,” said Raven, her mind working at the same exact pace. “We should probably call it a night,” she finished, wishing she had said a wide number of things other than those exact words.

“It’ll possibly be a long day tomorrow,” agreed Damian. He closed his eyes feeling foolish, thankful that Raven wasn’t quite looking at him.

Raven swallowed. “See you in the morning.” It was the best she could do.

Damian nodded, though she only caught it in her peripheral vision. They each took half a step away hesitantly then turned down towards their own corridors, each thinking of a number of ways how that precise exchange could have gone better…

~

“Wouldn’t that be cool though?”

Beast Boy’s voice was not the first thing Raven thought she would hear coming into the medical bay at first light, but there he was, standing alongside Jaime as she opened the door. It seemed there was no change in Donna’s status. She laid there sleeping almost peacefully on the first gurney in her usual black-and-silver uniform as Jon looked over her. He seemed to have left at one point (using his super-speed, Raven didn’t doubt) to have at least showered and changed. He wore regular blue jeans and a bright blue pullover now. Damian stood beside them, scratching notes down on a medical board seriously, also in casual attire for once. His normal dark jeans and black zip-up hoodie. He didn’t look up as Raven entered and she wondered if there was perhaps a change in a new set of tests.

“What would be cool?” Raven asked, indulging Garfield and Jaime. Garfield looked scheming and Jaime seemed already tired.

“If that was a love spell Circe was working on,” said Gar, cocking an eyebrow deviously.

“Why on Earth would the world’s most powerful sorceress need a love spell,” said Damian dully, not looking up from his note scratching.

“You don’t know what goes on in her personal life!”

Jon sighed heavily. Raven felt bad he had to put up with all of this at once. Ever since Damian had convinced his oldest friend to join the Titans a year ago, shortly after the first Superboy, Conner, left, it seemed inevitable that he and Donna would get together with how well they hit it off. Raven smiled at the memory of Donna’s eyes lighting up when she first saw Jon duck his head and introduce himself to her like a good southern gentleman.

“If that was a love potion she had back there, then you’d better go find the rest of it,” said Jaime, smirking at Garfield, “cause that’s the only way you’re going to solve your hopeless infatuation with Jinx, amigo.”

Garfield adopted a sour expression as Raven chortled. Even Damian was biting back a growing smile.

Jon stood tall. He and Damian shared a look before he glanced at the other two boys. “Looks guys,” he said politely, “I know you mean well and that you care about her, but on the off-chance that she doesn’t wake up feeling, well, _well,_ we might need to give her some space.”

“10-4, hermano,” said Jaime, folding his arms. “I gotta call Traci anyways.” He looked sideways at Garfield and winked. “We’ve got dinner plans tonight.”

“I hope they serve you spoiled meat,” muttered Garfield. Jaime chortled as they both turned for the door. Damian caught Raven’s eye before sitting down in one of the chairs by Donna’s gurney, looking studiously over what he had written. Jon stood by Raven and appeared he was about to ask her something just as Garfield and Jaime had nearly made their way out.

And then-

_Thoom!_

A gale of wind rushed by followed by a thumping noise and a short cry from Damian. The other four Titans whirled their heads around in wild bewilderment to see Donna awake, looking perfectly fine and normal, other than the fact that she was sitting on a jarred Damian’s lap with her arms around his neck and looking at him with love-struck eyes.

“ _Hi,”_ she whispered, nearly close enough to touch their foreheads together.

Raven’s mouth fell open as she stared half in shock, half in horror.

“D-Donna?” said Jon, his voice cracking.

“What the hell?” snapped Damian. He jolted his head back and attempted to shove her off of him, but Donna didn’t budge a muscle. She seemed unbothered by his trials in doing so and remained staring at him with a completely enamored expression.

“Donna,” Jon tried again, his voice still rather high-pitched. He took a step towards them. “Are- are you… feeling well?”

Donna squeezed Damian in closer, whose face was now turning red in his vain attempts to make the opposite occur. “Better than ever,” she said delightedly.

Raven’s expression hadn’t recovered. It made no sense. What was this? There’s no way anything Circe had hit Donna in the head _that_ hard. She was just-

Raven gasped as the truth hit her. An intake of air from Jaime could be heard as Best Boy’s words played again in her ears.

“Oh no…”

It was infuriating as Garfield cackled with laughter at the situation. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he said. “Circe _did_ make a love potion!”

Jon’s head snapped back his way with an expression identical to Raven’s before turning back to his best friend being crushed by Donna’s loving hug.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Damian echoed Garfield, but in a completely different tone. He was now craning his neck away from Donna, whose face was mere inches away.

Raven turned to Jon.

“Call Kori,” she told him firmly, “we need a better handle on this situation. She’ll let Batman and the JLD know what’s going on. I’ll… I’ll try to separate them,” she finished unsurely, watching with dismay as Donna was clearly trying to plant her lips on Damian.

Jon took a moment before shutting his eyes tight and nodding. “This is the worst,” he muttered as he turned away. Garfield could still be heard laughing and if Raven had a moment to spare she would have made him regret his mockery, but instead all she could do was direct an open fist at Donna nestled in Damian’s lap and chant her mantra.

“ _Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!”_

A purple hue outlined Donna’s form, whose expression didn’t change at all until the moment her arms were forced to unravel around Damian’s neck. Then she quickly adopted a look of divine outrage.

“What is this!?” she demanded fiercely as she began to float. Damian quickly scampered out from underneath her and Raven began to struggle as Donna began to fight the hold of her power to get back to Damian. Her beautiful oceanic eyes found Raven and the empath almost stepped back at the intensity of the white-hot fury she felt.

“Is this _your_ doing, Raven?! How _dare_ you keep me apart from my beloved!”

“Donna, snap out of it!” Damian shouted from behind Raven. Clearly, Donna only registered one thing.

She sighed like she was looking at a box of adorable puppies. Her eyes were immensely softer and Raven was grateful she wasn’t fighting back as hard now. “My name from your lips is more wonderful than the world’s most beautiful musical, my love,” Donna said joyously.

“When I’m yelling it with appall?”

But Donna only sighed again lovingly. And though Raven debated briefly if perhaps squeezing her tightly would help snap her mind back, it seemed, for the moment, the Amazonian was calmed down.

~

“Zatanna is already cooking up something. She’ll have John’s help once he stops laughing.”

Starfire and Dick Grayson both wore similar expressions with downwards twisted mouths as they watched Donna. It was well over an hour later and the Titans had been told nothing could be done until a powerful antidote was made to counteract a love-spell made with a binding tool from Eros.

“If you had all listened to me and thought ahead, we could have avoided this and got Donna back early,” said Garfield casually as he took a bite from his tofu omelet. Jaime jabbed his arm.

They were in the tower’s cafeteria and, despite nothing in particular happening, things were very tense amongst the members. Zatanna had assured Kori over a call that they knew a remedy. They knew Donna would be alright soon. But that did not relax Damian, who was as stiff as a board, as he sat across from Donna, who had her chin resting on a hand propped on her elbow and leaning as far toward him as she could with that same lovebird expression. It did not relax Jon, who stood next to Kori and Dick with a pouting turn to his lips and his arms folded crossly. And it did not relax Raven, who sat diligently by Damian in case Donna decided to get out of hand.

“Why on Earth would the mighty Circe need a love spell?” wondered Dick curiously, coking an eyebrow as Donna sighed while watching Damian again. “Batman told me he’s seen her turn an entire city’s population into monkeys.”

“Maybe she’s tired of being alone for Valentine’s?” shrugged Kori, also watching Donna. The Amazonian made the tiniest move causing Damian to flinch back and Raven to raise her hands defensively. A small smile tugged at the Tamaranian’s lips.

“We’ll probably never know,” Dick relented.

“What will our children be named?” Donna asked Damian. Both he and Raven grimaced. “I wish our firstborn son to be named after their glorious father.”

“This is the _wooorst,”_ Jon groaned, throwing his head back. Jaime smirked Superboy’s way.

“How _else_ did you picture this day going?” he teased. Jon leveled a glare his way.

“Where’d your girlfriend live? Cause if you’re trying to get there for the early bird, I’ve got no problem _throwing you.”_

Jaime easily laughed it off. Kori looked between them all.

“This is one of the oddest scenario’s I’ve ever seen,” she muttered to her fiancé. Dick simply nodded his agreement.

At that moment Damian stood and Raven really wished he had let her know what he was about to do, for the instant he rose, Donna’s arms were around him.

“Our arms were made to hold each other,” she said. Before Raven could emit her powers, Damian managed to buy himself a few inches and shoot her an annoyed look with his furrowed brow.

“ _Enough_ of this, Donna,” he said, “you and I do not have feelings for each other.”

Everyone in the room (except Garfield) tensed for Donna’s reaction, who threw her head back with an affronted expression as if she’d just been told her kid was ugly. Then her face came back to inches within Damian’s with the same furrowed brow expression he wore.

“ _Never_ say that again!” she said vehemently.

“When will that potion be ready?” asked Raven wearily as she cast her spell around Donna’s form again, pulling away despite her struggling. She was going to be depleted well before nightfall if she had to keep an Amazonian at bay all day long.

“We’ll hopefully have it before sundown,” said Kori doubtfully. “It all mainly depends on-“

“ _Constantine_ ,” Dick, Raven, Damian, and Jon muttered in unison.

~

“You cannot keep me from my _soulmate_ you half-alien _freak_!” Donna yelled as Jon had his arms wrapped around her to keep the Amazonian from thrashing about. He and Raven had just stopped a particularly close encounter where Donna had picked Damian up and attempted to fly off with him. Raven helped control Donna’s movements as Damian was ordered to retreat by Dick and Kori. He would maneuver around the tower avoiding detection.

“Put her in the containment cell,” gasped Kori, sweating from keeping Donna back, “that should buy us at least an hour.”

So Jon dragged Donna, kicking and screaming her undying love for Damian, all the way to where the Titans kept their prisoners, helped by Raven.

Half an hour later, Raven was wandering the hallways again. She’d let Jon and Kori watch Donna for a while to catch a breather. She stopped and gazed out of a floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the West side of the tower to the sinking sun over the bay. It was beautiful, but still, she frowned. Perhaps John Constantine had blown them off in their time of need. Then the tiniest noise like a feather-weighted step made her turn back towards the East. Raven raised a hand and she felt a sort of determination and braced herself for yet another fight as she feared Donna had escaped her containment cell.

“I know you’re there,” she called out and heard a relieved sigh. She watched as Damian stepped out from one of the long shadows as if by magic.

“Thank Barbatos,” he muttered, “it’s just you.”

“Thanks,” replied Raven dryly. Damian realized how he said it and smiled apologetically.

“You know how I meant it,” he said. “For a moment I thought Donna escaped you all again.”

“They have her in containment cell one,” Raven informed. Damian nodded as he rubbed the side of his neck absently. “What happened?”

Damian looked like he got caught at something he shouldn’t have and internally debated about fessing up. With a deep tug on one side of his mouth, he said, “She got me right before you pulled her off that last time.”

Raven let that soak in. “Her lips, you mean?”

Damian gave a non-committal jerk and tug of the head. Raven sighed and looked away from him. This day had almost gone the polar opposite way that she and Donna had planned less than twenty-four hours ago.

Damian’s hand dropped from his neck as he watched Raven. There seemed to be some sort of decision solidifying within him.

“I…” he closed his eyes and reopened them with a new fire shinning in those gold-specked emeralds, “I’m sorry this day’s turned out like this for you.”

His tone caught Raven’s attention as much as his words had. Her lips parted slightly as she looked back at him, curious amethysts again meeting hard emeralds.

“It seems you’re the one with the burden to bear,” said Raven. “There’s no reason for you to be apologizing.”

Damian’s jaw flexed as he folded his hands formally behind his back. Their eyes didn’t waver from one another.

“I’m not oblivious to what today is,” he said. “You’ve had to run around safeguarding me all the while. I’m sorry if you’ve had to waste… other plans.”

Raven wanted to step closer but fought the urge. “You’ve known me for four years, Damian,” she said in a quieter voice, “you’d be aware if I had a plan with some Valentine.”

Damian’s eyes shook as he thought of how to phrase what he wanted to say. “I wouldn’t wish to intrude on something… that had nothing to do with me.”

Raven’s eyes tightened, never once leaving his. Was he testing the waters?

“I wouldn’t mind you intruding at all,” she said breathlessly. Damian was completely still, as she was sure she was, other than his eyes moving about so quickly it appeared as if they were shaking. The intensity of their gaze was scolding. Then Damian shut his eyes and Raven’s went wider as she felt his guard lower.

“I had other plans for today,” he spoke with his eyes shut, “I… I had the intention of asking you to a dinner with me.”

Raven’s eyes shot wide and her eyebrows high. Damian’s eyes opened, but he looked only down and away, as though he had admitted to a weakness and was left vulnerable.

“The occasion of Valentine’s would never be a top candidate to do so,” he said, seeming reluctant with every word he let spill forth, “but I’ve had the intention of courting you for a while now. It was just… Jon pushing me that…” He closed his eyes and seemed to try to get ahold of himself for a moment. Raven took that chance to speak.

“Donna pushed me to,” she said. Damian’s eyes shot open in response. “She wanted me to do chocolates. I never would have in a million years.”

“Elementary and classical,” said Damian, holding her eyes with his again, “but what else could we expect from those two…”

Raven just stared at him. As unplanned as possible, but their moment had come. She loved the smoldering set of his eyes now. It was far from his sleeve, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever met anybody with more heart.

“I never thought you’d accept my invitation,” he admitted.

“Damian,” said Raven softly, “I would have accepted that offer years ago…”

She wasn’t consciously aware of when they had begun drifting forward, but now he reached down and took her hand gently in his. Her eyes never looked away from his. Other than the moment they both closed and leaned in together.

As absorbed as they were, even Raven with her powerful empath abilities was unaware of an ecstatic Starfire coming up the stairs and bounding into the hallway to deliver the wonderful news: John Constantine and his far more responsible girlfriend Zatanna had just teleported into the tower and were administering Donna with the antidote now. But she stopped short upon one of the warmest sights she’d ever witnessed- Raven holding Damian gently at the neck and his arms around her as they embraced in a loving kiss, basked beautifully in the light of the sunset. She stopped short and backed away.

“Well,” she said quite quietly to herself, “three or four years late, but better than never, you two.”

She escaped quietly from whence she came as Raven’s lips left his. Damian gestured wordlessly to the outside to where they might just get to enjoy the final hours of their first Valentine’s together.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, guys. Hail DamiRae.


End file.
